I call Tuesday night’s performance SSOTU: Sorry State of the Union.

Not just President Bush, but also the Democrats in Washington.

I’ve got three words for Bush’s performance: boring and small-bore.

It’s striking to see how far the once-“bold” Bush has fallen since SOTU a year ago.

Then he was riding high, spending his political capital and ready to overhaul both Social Security and the tax code.

This year his ideas are as weak as his rhetoric.

He’s shrinking before our very eyes. The so-called “Rebel in Chief” looks more and more like the ne’er-do-well prodigal son who has to be rescued by Daddy and Daddy’s friends over and over.

And what can be more ludicrous than the progeny of Bush Inc. and Big Oil Inc. calling for energy independence.

I just wish there was a single Democrat who was more compelling. But they look just as tiny – and sound just as tinny – in the wake of their debacle over the Alito nomination.

The Republican Alito strategists, unlike their President, knew what they were doing there. Democrats stumbled and bumbled so badly they had to shoot arrows into John Kerry when he made his ludicrous last stand.

Sadly, there is only one compelling and commanding Bush critic in Washington that I care to listen to. And he’s a Republican: John McCain.